The human skeleton is a powerful visual symbol. It has come to represent the “remains” or what’s left after life has ended, after the flesh and mind cease to function. In my photographs, Robert uses the human skeleton as the formal visual element, the subject of the image. In this manner, the skeleton is both the protagonist and antagonist (the Buddhist notion about, “the duality of man” seems apt).

For each photograph the artist disassembles the modular system of the skeleton and reconfigures the elements to form a new image. These images are man made. Images of aggression, images that cause suffering, devastation and conflict. Robert intends the images to plant the notion of restraint and charity in an effort to promote peace and tolerance.

CONTENTS

When I was 13, my mother caught me taking a few coins from her visiting friend's purse. "Francois", she said, "A woman's handbag is more private than her body."

And so began the intrigue. In the Seventies, working as a photographer, I started to document what I found in people's bags and packets. Was it an excuse to undress the individual I selected that day?

Over the decades, I photographed what was inside the purses and pockets of dozens of my friends, acquaintances and friends of friends. I'd invite them to my studio for "a special portrait," not wanting to disclose my intention so I could maintain spontaneity and keep people from editing their belongings. The real challenge was to present my subjects possessions non-judgmentally, like an archeologist might catalog artifacts, freezing in thime what a certain person was carrying on a particular day in a particular year.

The result of this exploration is "Contents," a series of photographs that I tried to make both objective and revealing.